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MormonVoices Calls on Rick Santorum to Denounce Anti-Mormon Preacher

Posted on Mar 13, 2012

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (March 13, 2012) – MormonVoices today called on Republican Presidential candidate Rick Santorum to condemn the anti-Mormon comments made by his supporter, and honorary Florida Chairman, Reverend O’Neal Dozier. The New York Daily News and multiple other media outlets have reported that Dozier proclaimed that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly referred to as the Mormon Church, is racist and said that the Church “is prejudiced against Blacks, Jews and the Native American Indians.” He therefore demanded that Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney publicly “renounce his racist Mormon Religion.” He claims that in so doing, he hopes “to foster and maintain good race relations here in America.”

Scott Gordon, a managing director of MormonVoices, and contributor to the Website Blacklds.org, counters that Dozier’s attacks on the Church do nothing to maintain good race relations and do serious harm to maintaining good religious relations in America. “Dozier’s comments represent a form of religious bigotry that should not be tolerated by any serious candidate for the Presidency of the United States. His comments are either ignorant or are willful misrepresentations for personal or political purposes.” Gordon also pointed out that Dozier’s challenge to Romney seems curiously behind the times, given that the Church’s restriction on priesthood for Blacks ended in 1978 and that today, all men of any race who meet minimum standards of worthiness are ordained.

MormonVoices also released an article on its website, found at www.MormonVoices.org, clarifying the teachings on race that are found in The Book of Mormon, including the verse,“[The Lord] inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile” (2 Nephi 26:33). The article further quotes the recent Church statement that “unequivocally condemns racism, including any and all past racism by individuals both inside and outside the Church,” and the 2006 comments from the late Mormon Church president Gordon B. Hinckley, who declared that “no man who makes disparaging remarks concerning those of another race can consider himself a true disciple of Christ. Nor can he consider himself to be in harmony with the teachings of the Church.”

MormonVoices was created to respond to false or misleading information in the media and is not affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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